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AMERICAN POMOIyOGlCAI, SOCIETY 
An Example of Co-operative Banking. 
My first experience with one was really amusing, in Italy. I had never 
seen one, and I wanted to see one in operation in the vicinity; and I went 
out to where they said there was one, at a country crossroads a few miles 
from town. I went to the building where they said it was, and when I got there 
found the building was a store. I thought there must be an upstairs; but 
upstairs seemed to be empty halls, and I finally went in this store. The 
man who answered “come in” was a butcher, and next to him sat a butcher, 
but also the storekeeper. They said the credit union was really next door, 
so I went around and there was the butcher shop. I did not yet see the credit 
union, but the man called his good wife and introduced her as the banker. 
The bank was where she happened to be staying, and so the butcher said 
when he introduced her that the bank was there. I 1 asked about the books: 
“They are in the dining-room on the shelf,” he said. How abo/ut a safe? 
Well, really they had no safe. The butcher admitted that his good wife 
had all the money on her person, and that they had in the treasury at that 
particular time only one hundred and twenty-five or one hundred and fifty 
lira, very carefully tucked away on her person, so it was perfectly safe, and 
everybody knew she was the bank and banker, and it was as safe for all 
the rest as it would have been anywhere. Did they have any losses? None 
that they had ever heard of. And I thought they would surely hear of it 
if such losses were possible! 
In Germany alone there are seventeen thousand of these credit unions, 
and these credit unions have a sort of substitution for banks, as a result of 
which farmers never have been paying in personal credit more than five 
and one-half — one farmer said six per cent for his money, but generally 
very little over five and one-fourth. In general, I should say four per cent, 
though it is hard to make general statements; frequently four and one-half 
and four per cent interest. They borrow as a society, all taking responsi- 
bility, knowing each other and that they will not run away over night, and 
probably everything is all right there, and each year the whole thing is 
cleaned up anew. This little cooperative arrangement reduces the rate of 
interest in some places from ten to five per cent, with perfect harmony in 
the whole society; and that has made the farmers business men, because 
they are exacted to keep their little accounts, and it has made the whole 
countryside thoroughly prosperous where it has prevailed. 
It is quite probable that we could in this country introduce these credit 
unions. They are little voluntary societies that could be formed without 
any law involved, and anybody that wanted to could start them. In the 
past few weeks I have had compilations made of the constitutions and by- 
laws, rules and regulations and business forms of typical credit unions, 
and the matter put into some sort of practical shape ; and when you or any 
of your friends are wanting to get any of the details of the operation of 
any of these European organizations, you may do so by addressing me and 
we will have the matter mailed to you. (Applause.). 
President Lupton: I have great pleasure in introducing to you Mr. 
Charles J. Brand, the Chief of the Office of Markets in the Department of 
Agriculture, at Washington. 
